Psychotic Nation

Call it America's Hitler, call it The American Taliban. It really doesn't matter much. We're all trapped on the same Titanic. America is just stupid enough, America is just mean enough, and America is just selfish and greedy enough to put this abomination in the White House in 2016... and I think that is exactly what they will do.

I used the third person pronoun above because I am certainly not going to help this horror happen! President Chickennuts may clearly be no better than the lesser of two evils, but pushing the voting button for All Democrats is the only viable alternative we have left to us at this point. There is no hope for any third party until hell freezes over, and global warming will see that that never happens.

The problem with the Democratic Party is that it refuses to give up the identity politics it adopted so fully back in the Sixties. The Southern Strategy from the other side was nothing more than a backlash against the identity politics so totally embraced by the Left. You know something is happening here, but you don't know what it is, do you, Mr. Jones? What is happening is that all the right wing media is lying to you because of The Southern Strategy and all of the left wing media is lying to you because of identity politics. Neither side has any intention of telling the truth because the greater truth is that all of them are paid too damn much! The psychotic culture we live in cares about only three things: money, sex, and celebrity, in that order. The Democrats are lying because it pays too well to throw the game! All the issues of identity politics are just noise and nothing more. What Mr. Jones cannot seem to figure out is that we as a nation have desperately needed class warfare, and not identity politics, for forty years now!

There are two ways to (possibly) fix the economy and banish the national madness from our psyches. The Republicans would not be able to win a national election for some time to come if either tactic was utilized. The first is to simply make voting mandatory. Since no one seems to like that idea, that leaves only one other alternative. The Democratic power brokers and their media sycophants must quietly phase out their relentless support and usage of identity politics. They must slowly but firmly convince the more sane members of the voting bloc on the right that we are no longer the party of minorities. We are the Party of the People, the party of the 99%, the party of all average and low-income Americans. The Left does not have to change any of its policies, but we MUST stop engaging in the endless slap-fight that continually pushes members of a huge voting bloc to the political dark side. We must leave some of our fantasies of idealism outside the political realm and begin to vote and act in a more tactical, successful manner. The peak of liberalism in America occurred way back in 1969. We have been sliding ever so slowly into a right-wing oblivion of selfishness and greed ever since. It is way past time for the Left to realize that it has become the Mr. Jones. It was a far different nation and world back when Bob Dylan wrote the refrain to "Ballad of a Thin Man" back in 1965!

I am going to switch gears for just a moment. You will see that at the top of the left column, I have added a link to my fourth book, Timeline of America: Sound Bytes from the Consumer Culture. Recent thoughts about this book inspired this article. Timeline has always been my weakest selling book, even though it should be the one with far the most widespread appeal! Of course I realize the high price of the print version is one of the problems, but I had no control over that issue. The Kindle and Nook versions are well under $5, so what are you waiting for? I have often considered releasing an updated print version, now that I have control of the cover price, but there has always been a great big monster that has stifled that idea whenever it pops up for consideration. The timelines of wonderful, nostalgic memories of American culture stop at 2006 because that is where they stopped in real life! Timeline was an enormous project to create. The parade of delightful memories identified and elevated in the book were clearly running out of steam by the middle of the last decade. Even as I approached that final year six years ago, positive creations and events in America were quickly losing momentum. To be honest, it was something of a struggle to take the book even as far as I did.

Then came Paradigm Shift, which for decades was referred to as The Hyde Papers, as in the Jekyll and Hyde of American culture. Timeline was the Jekyll and Paradigm was the Hyde. I have seen or experienced nothing since to give me hope that this is not the whole, final, complete truth. America is clearly on a suicide mission. Obviously, far too few Americans are able to see the Mr. Jones reflecting back at them in the mirrors of their insanity.

Ambient Politics

I have not posted here at NIAFS in just over a month. This has been for two reasons: one, I am working on another book project, and two, I have completely had it with American politics and with American voters in particular. This post is about Reason #2.

My wife is one of those people who was prescribed Ambien as a sleeping aid many years ago. I discovered about a decade back that she was occasionally exhibiting strange, semi-conscious behaviors after taking this drug. My conclusion after observing several such instances of sleepwalking-like behavior was that Ambien was truly one of the most dangerous drugs I had ever encountered. Although my wife never tried to drive a car under the mysterious influence of this drug, she did try cooking and other household tasks numerous times. Being the psychologically oriented person that I am, I tried several tactics to show my wife the dangerous behavior of which she was completely oblivious at the time, but none actually worked, at least not in the real time in which the strange behaviors were occurring. Gentle persuasion never registered in her conscious brain. I tried getting in her face with strong words and emphatic language. I tried taking her by the hand or arms and physically guiding her back to bed. I ordered her to cease what she was doing and return to bed in the most insistent manner I could muster. Nothing worked, at least not to her conscious mind at the time. Of course I was able to shut off the range or whatever other hazardous equipment she was operating and guide her belligerent body back to bed, but not once did she ever recall a conscious memory of the event the next morning. She continued to think that I was just exaggerating or overreacting to her use of the drug. I repeated the stories every time there was an incident, but her conscious memory remained blank.

Ambien works beautifully as a sleep-enhancing drug. There are two common over the counter drugs that are marketed as Ambien competitors. Simply Sleep seems to have little effect on some people, such as myself, and Sominex can have a full twenty-four-hour hangover effect on some people, also such as myself. Ambien seems to work without either negative. After several years of forbidding my wife to use Ambien for obvious risk to her health, I discovered the simple truth. Ambien affects people who feel driven to accomplish a certain task, whether that is cooking breakfast or driving to the supermarket. Obsessive-compulsive personalities should stay far away! If you are not one of these people, or if you are, but you are certain at the specific time you wish to take the drug that you are completely relaxed and not subconsciously compelled to complete a certain task within a given timeline, Ambien will help you sleep without its dangerous side effect.

The Ambien example is a state of mind, a psychological determination appropriate for each individual. The drug company controlling and distributing the drug will never tell you the truth about it because the truth is inconvenient for them, specifically for their financial income. The company cannot control lawsuits effectively if the truth is stated on the bottle, that the danger applies to certain personality types or to particular mood swings of any potential user. The whole concept is entirely too messy for an entity who cares only about the money. My wife and I no longer have any trepidations concerning her use of Ambien. The answer is simply to always have a person present who is aware of the potential side effect, a person who has the wherewithal to stop the ingestion of Ambien by a user who is wired up at the time of potential usage. If sleep is desperately sought during such a state of mind, take Sominex or Simply Sleep instead.

Our political leaders and their media henchmen have become like the producers of Ambien. They have no intention whatsoever of telling us the truth or acting in our best interests. The key to this nightmare does not lie with the politicians or the media personalities. The real culprit is the American voter. The politicians, no matter how despicably you may see the issues of  individual ones, are doing nothing more than chasing the big numbers in the voting booths of America. If anything, the media personalities are probably even more guilty than the politicians themselves. It is the media who benefits the most financially from close races and endless slap-fights between political correctness and racial religion. The last thing they are interested in telling the voters is how patently absurd these issues are, particularly in the relentless faces of global warming, exploding population, demographic nightmares, and most of all, extreme income inequality.

The Republicans took over America with a long-range plan that began in the '70's. Their plan centered around the population sectors that were growing, the Southern states. They took voters from the Democratic side and moved them to their side. Here we are nearly forty years later and the Democrats are still acting as if elections are won in America by simple vote count. They are acting as if population shifts to the Southern and Western sections of the country mean nothing. Ditto for the many Republican redistricting plans. I have a news flash for the Democratic leadership. You are either idiots or assholes; which is it? It will be a cold day in a global warming hell before you overpower the Republican juggernaut with minorities of race, religion, or sexual orientation! You must at least begin a long-range plan to take our country back from the nuts. You must make the pendulum swing back to sanity, and there is only one way you are going to do it. You must start a long-range plan to recover the Southern and Western voters you began to lose with your support of the civil rights legislation of the '60's. I am not saying that you must change any of your essential policies, but I am saying that you must change the perceptual attitude toward those issues. You must build a coalition of the 99% around the central cause of all our misery, poverty and income inequality, and you must begin by publicly telling the truth concerning the driving force behind this cause, population.

Class warfare is precisely what America needs most. Class has been hammering us all into the ground since The Reagan Revolution and it is far past time to start doing something about it. Elizabeth Warren has been awarded the warmup speech for Bill Clinton at the upcoming convention. That's not good enough. She should have the same keynote speech opportunity that Barry got in 2004. Yes, of course I know they are giving this opportunity to an Hispanic mayor. We already got America's first African-American President. How's that working out for you? Of course he's a hell of a speech maker, and obviously an intelligent, compassionate man, but his relentless sellout to Wall Street should have already shown you that he is not exactly what America needs to overpower the Republican madness and at least begin to address global warming and income inequality in a meaningful manner. As always, my wife and I shall be the first in line to cast our votes for Barry's second term, as well as punching the button for all Democrats. The problem is that this is simply not good enough.

The whole circus is depressingly predictable. Just because I live in Texas, I nearly always vote for the eventual loser. President Obama may well secure a second term of do-nothing actions against the Republican juggernaut, but every other Democrat I shall vote for in 2012 will be the usual lost cause. I used to live in Mississippi, where the result was the same. I lived briefly in Tennessee as a young adult, and you can guess the result in that state, too. The same can be said of most states in which the voters from large expanses of small and medium-sized towns outnumber those in central cities. Outsiders may think of Austin as being solidly blue, but that is not the whole story. Only the central city in Travis County is blue. The highly populous suburbs and exurbs located in several surrounding counties are as red as Mitt's face whenever his tax returns are mentioned. The two monstrous populations of Texas, the DFW Metroplex and the Houston metro area are much the same way. What is Sarah Palin's favorite place in Texas? The Woodlands, a very rich suburb of Houston, is where she has made several key speeches to her faithful power brokers.

Democrats, I have a little advice for you. Shut up about Chick-fil-A! Shut up about gay marriage. Stop the bashing of churchgoers in particular and religion in general. Stop calling everyone from the South racists. Cease the relentless promotion of diversity at all political cost. Stop calling all Republican voters idiots. As I stated previously, I am not asking that you change any of your policies on the issues. I am simply asking that you cease participating in the endless slap-fight! It takes two to fight a relentless war. You cannot continue to call yourselves the rational, intelligent ones as you continually trade epithets with the really crazy ones! You cannot take our country back from the crazies without swinging a substantial number of white, rural and Southern voters back to our side. You must take voters from your opponent. They have the organization. They have the media. They are the juggernaut. To move this nation forward, we must disable the effectiveness of The Southern Strategy. We must convince a substantial portion of their voters to switch sides. They did it to us and we can do it back to them, but not by antagonizing their voting bloc.

The media is making far too much money off the slap-fight of relentlessly close elections. As with the Big Pharma that distributes Ambien, Big Media will never tell us the truth. What people think is true is often a more powerful persuader than the truth itself. Millions of Republican voters of various flavors observe the actions of the Democratic media, politicians, and voters. They do not see the similarities of the 99%. They see the Democrats as the party of minorities of many sorts, while they are the majority. The key is that although we may be the majority of potential voters, they are the majority of actual voters. These are the people we need on our side. We can explain the intricacies of political issues to them after we have secured their votes on a consistent basis. The real truths about Ambien and most political issues cannot be explained in a sound bite. We all need a dose of responsibility for our own actions, both private and political.

Room Full of Mirrors

I had been planning to use this title from the classic Jimi Hendrix tune to describe the current state of television news media, but due to the recent posts and comments at Brad Scharlott's blog, I think it is time to explain a few issues. Many of the readers of other blogs have repeatedly attacked the messenger (me) every time I have tried to clarify the situation, so here I am sticking my neck out once again. Unlike most of my anonymous and pseudo-named accusers, I am who I am, as always. I never post or comment on other blogs anonymously. I am always either Floyd M. Orr or 77TA66 on any Disqus-equipped blogs. Anyone who has claimed that any comment by Anonymous on other blogs is me is mistaken. Let's get down to business.

The obvious big secret is that some bloggers, and you know who they are, have been surreptitiously trying to control the message, the issues, and whatever possible fame and fortune they can ensnare in their traps. This has been going on since 2008, and it was time years ago to stop this behavior that restrains the truth! Many of the commenters on the various blogs know a lot more than they indicate in their comments. Amy1 is one of these. She knows much more because I told her. She is absolutely right in her most recent comment on Brad's blog that we must stop this keeping of secrets! What do you think I have been screaming for years? As I have told you all repeatedly, I am not the one keeping secrets from you. Yes, there is a boatload of information that I know that I shall not publish because in order to present the documented evidence that Amy1 and others so dearly want, I would have to include a lot of personal information about some people who are particularly innocent of the entire affair. Why would I have to include this information? Some of the people who have been hiding secrets have been doing it professionally for many years and they have become very good at it. The only way to present the facts as many of you want to read is to include the personal information of people who have nothing to do with Babygate or its investigation. These ancillary people are necessary to paint the complete picture, filling in all the blanks of the story. I have tried several times to bluff some of the perpetrators into doing the right thing and make the necessary adjustments so that the Babygate investigation can proceed in a broader public forum. My conscience is clear. I have done everything I can ethically do to expose Babygate.

The problem with the publishing of any Babygate book is not the writing and publishing; it is the marketing of the book to a large audience. I figured out a long time ago that (a) any major publisher would stumble and falter in telling the whole truth, (b) the pressure from the CNP above and the Palinbots below was way too strong back when the subject was hot in 2008-09, and (c) there had to be some hidden reason why none of the obvious bloggers did not self-publish the story a long time ago. If you put these three together, you will see that you cannot add two and two and get five, which is precisely what certain unnamed bloggers have been trying to pull off. Let's say that each one wants a big payoff to publish the book. That would be fine except that the time to secure such success was two years ago or more. Very few people care now what the 2008 VP loser did or did not do to get that nomination. They care even less that the loser's husband did a little political pimping on the side. Aside from SP suddenly running for President, the only thing that would make anyone give a rat's ass right now is if she or one of her minions said something incriminating on TV that could not be ignored. I tried to help that concept along, but I have seemingly failed. Palin supposedly hates my book, but there have yet to be enough sales to make her mad and say something stupid.

Let's continue onward with the 2+2=5 scenario. I know that most of you really want to see certain photos released in a book, either Fred's or otherwise. As I have explained to you before, it ain't gonna happen. The law is very clear about the ownership and publishing of photos. Two of my books have featured photos and my next project includes many more. I know what I am talking about here. All Palin has to do is state that she does not approve of the use of any of those key photos. Maybe a license can be secured from the actual photographer for one or more of them, as was done with a particular cluster of pictures published on the blogs. If that happens, great! You have my blessing. The problem is that I am not holding my breath. How much are you going to pay for the photos and how many books are you going to sell? Do you see the dilemma?

The next issue deals with the Fred book specifically. The problem here is that Fred is a published author, but he did not write The Wild Ride. Since when has an actual author ever used a ghostwriter to write one of his or her own books? Both the ghostwriter and the named author need to step away from The Wild Ride. From the information I have, I doubt that Fred has any intention of going through with such a devious plan, anyway. When I have been speaking of behind the scenes deceptions in the past, this is a prime example of what I mean. I do not know why Gryphen has simply not written The Wild Ride and boldly put the name Jesse Griffin on the cover in the first place. You tell me the answer to that and then we'll both know, as we used to say as kids. There has been a related con going on about Levi publishing the story, too, but that is not the subject of this post. I have never expected Levi to tell any significant truth until his mom is free of her persecutors, and of course I knew that when I published my most recent post prior to this one. That whole idea was a bit tongue-in-cheek.

Recently an Anonymous that was either Morgan Rouch or the other Morgan or Audrey (and yes, I know her real name and tons of other personal information) posted an interesting comment or two at The Immoral Minority and Gryphen shut her up as promptly as he could. In so many words, he said that if anyone got too close to the truth, he would not release the comments. Remember Media Insider? Remember Me Again? What part don't you understand? Have I not tried numerous times to tell you that he censors the comments so that certain information is never shown to the readers? For the record one more time, I support most of Gryphen's Babygate theories, including the two babies, but I do feel that he harbors a personal agenda. For that matter, so do his competitors on the other side, and I think their theories are way too limiting to actually be the whole truth of Babygate.

Maybe now that Amy1 has said it, you will listen to me. The secrets need to stop!! We are all going to pass into oblivion before the hoax is revealed to the general public, and the keeping of these secrets and the stifling of information and the refusal of cooperation among the Power Bloggers is a key to this sad, sad failure. Now I return you to your regularly scheduled discussion of which e-mail or which photograph is the ultimate key to Babygate. I am going back to my newest book project, in which the readers outnumber the messenger annihilators. My conscience is clear because I have told the world practically everything I know about Babygate in The Palin Matrix. I cannot help it if few care to read it.

No Horse Hockey, No Bull Puckey, No Games

... Dear Levi, as I am sure you have learned by now, I have followed your public career since August 2008. I realize that you have been absorbed into a world that you did not create. You accidentally stumbled onto a public stage that has increased your public visibility a hundredfold, yet all you ever wanted from life is to be a quiet young man in the northern wilderness.

Unlike most of the millions who are fascinated by your life story and what you might reveal to the world, I am not that far from your viewpoint on life. My dad taught me his favorite skills of hunting and fishing when I was not yet in high school. I sent my lure off the small fishing skiff from my green casting reel with my dad thousands of times when I was a kid. I got my first .22 rifle for Christmas when I was ten, a bolt action from the Sears catalog. My mom used it to keep the squirrels out of her pecan trees decades after I was grown and out of the house. My more modern .22 semi-automatic Remington with a ten-shot clip and scope waits silently in my bedroom closet. I don't get to use it nearly as much as I would like now that I live in the city. You probably even know a few displaced Southerners personally. We may live in the city as adults, but we have always relished the simple joys of country life.

Come home to me, Levi. Tell me your story in confidence. I am not in the game for money. I never have been. I could have written a book about your nemesis for a fraction of the cost in time and effort, and sold a lot more copies for profit. But you know I didn't do that. I told the story of America's sad downfall, its weakness of heart and soul. You know I have little trust of the same people that have repeatedly deceived you. I am an outsider just like you. I want you to tell your story, not for the satisfaction of all the I-told-you-sos that you are so weary of meeting. I want you to tell your story for the deep truth that it holds, for the release of the burden on your soul and your future. You are probably too young to realize it now, but you still have your whole life in front of you.

Your mom was framed, set up, sent to a life of public disgrace solely for the purpose of protecting some very bad people. Her crime was pathetically minimal, but we both know the punishment was meted out to the fullest extent of a very misguided law. There is nothing we can do about that situation now except to move you and your family to another state far away. From my perspective, you should have done that even before your mom was entrapped, but we cannot alter a fate that has already been sealed. We can only do the right thing now. Pick a town and a state far from Alaska and move there, and take Sherry and Mercede with you. Begin a new life for the sake of all of you. No other choice will offer you such hope.

Tell me your story, Levi. Tell me the truth, the whole truth without any games of deception or even accidentally-on-purpose deceit. By all means read Paradigm Shift first. If you do not have a copy, just tell me an address where to send one. Most of what I know about your story is contained in the book, however I know a lot that is not in the book, particularly about the people who have tried to lead you down their many misleading pathways. I can tell you all of it. All you have to do is to trust me and tell me the whole truth as you know it to be. I seriously doubt that we both know the same details. In fact I expect that our knowledge of the subject spans a wide chasm between us. After all, I am about three times your age, so I do not expect you to have an understanding of The Southern Strategy or the Council for National Policy or the severe divisiveness your nemesis has brought to our once great nation. I understand that your viewpoint is much more up close and personal, that you have  a child caught in the crossfire.

Bring your conscience home to me, Levi. I can tell your story without the conflicting motives of your fellow Alaskans. I can publish it in book form so that it remains alive forever. You tell me the truth and I can make it real for your children. They will always have the truth in print, regardless of all the hurtful, shallow dreck published by the blogs and tabloids that have haunted your story since the beginning. Come home to the truth, Levi. We both have been blackballed by those who seek only to control us for the acquisition of personal fame and fortune. Please come home, Levi. Let me tell your story. Let's tell the truth as only we can.

Fifty Faces

Hunter S. Thompson Cat has his eyes wide open watching out for the fifty faces I never want to see on TV again. No celebrity should be allowed to deface my television set as much or as often as the members of this rogues' gallery have done over the past few years. Some of these are on the screen multiple times a day, 365 days a year. Some have just been on the public stage too damn long, and some have been nauseating from their very first appearance. It's way past time to save my sanity and bring the hook. You may say that I can always turn off the TV or change the channel. That's why I watch with my finger on the channel or mute buttons. Hold your nose. Here comes the parade of stinkers.

50. Anderson Cooper - Of course I know you are not as bad as many on this list, but how many hours a day do we have to get our supposed news from only one person?

49. Larry King - Finally, one of these clowns has already left the stage. He was becoming quite the parody of himself.

48. Ray Barone & the Rest of His Family - Of course you created a decent sitcom, but enough is enough! You are on multiple channels umpteen times a day! I've seen 'em all already!

47. Kevin James - Some of your movies are quite good, but your sitcom earns a C+ on its best day. If it was on only once a week, that would be tolerable. As it is, I am sick of it!

46. Steven Tyler - I have always liked your outfits and persona as America's answer to Mick Jagger, but dude, you are embarrassing yourself!

45. Paul Teutul, Sr. - Does everybody on reality TV have to be covered in tattoos and build ridiculously expensive, but practically useless, products?

44. Will Ferrell - Some of your movies are good, but too many of them are silly trash that are rerun endlessly on numerous cable channels.

43. Dr. Drew - An occasional appearance on MTV was interesting. Now you are just in our faces way too many times a week on way too many channels.

42. Jabbering Sluts on MTV & VH-1 - What happened to the music videos, or at least stories about musicians?

41. Toothless, Tattooed Hicks - Why does every outdoor reality show have to showcase the morons of America?

40. Geraldo Rivera - You were more mentally stable before you joined Fox News.

39. Dennis Miller - You can speak quite intelligently, but how can you stand Bill O'Reilly?

38. Erin Burnett - You are just too damn cute to be taken seriously. Of course I have never taken you seriously in the first place because you came to CNN from The Wall Street Channel.

37. Lou Dobbs - Just go home to your Hispanic wife and shut up. You're a hypocrite!

36. Bill O'Reilly - If you had only stayed with the gossip reporting of your early career, you might still be tolerable. You are lower on the list than you deserve because your trivia quizzes are at least entertaining.

35. Ben Stiller - I am SO sick of your one-trick-pony act in movies endlessly rerun on TV. You may think you are the next generation's Woody Allen, but trust me, one movie released every five years would be plenty.

34. The cast of Hot in Cleveland - Yes, you have assembled a competent cast of famous comediennes, but the canned laughter and endless promotion are overbearing, and most of all, the show is STUPID!

33. Ted Nugent - You once were a rock star and decent guitar player. Get your ass out of politics and go back to screwing as many groupies as possible.

32. Janine Turner - Just because you once played an Alaskan does not make you a political expert.

31. Victoria Jackson - You are a stupid traitor to the sensibilities of Saturday Night Live!

30. Gene Simmons - Just because you washed off your makeup doesn't make you a TV star.

29. Sharon Osbourne - You married a rocker, but that doesn't make you worth watching on TV.

28. Piers Morgan - Take your Bristish snotass back to England, you turd. There are plenty of real Americans who could do a more honest job of interviewing politicians and celebrities.

27. Gloria Borger - You are one of the biggest sellout traitors to the Republican media. You once represented the voice of reason on PBS. Now you are just another CNN right-wing shill.

26. Bay Buchanan - You have always been a nut. Now you are just an old nut.

25. Mary Matalin - Thank your lucky stars that you live in New Orleans and are married to a sane person.

24. Dana Bash - You are married to another Republican on the same damn network. Could you be any less impartial in your reporting?

23. Elisabeth Hasselbeck - You may be easy on the eyes, but your mouth is hard on the ears.

22. Mika Brzezinski - See Hasselbeck above.

21. Mitt Romney - You were boring the first ten minutes you were on. Isn't paint drying somewhere?

20. Ari Fleischer - Can you add anything to the conversation other than Republican talking points?

19. Dana Perino - See Hasselbeck and Brzezinski above. Just because Ari Fleischer is on CNN does not mean that Fox News needs yet another blonde bimbo.

18. Neil Cavuto - You are a Republican supposedly reporting the financial news on Fox. Could you be any more biased, predictable or boring?

17. Joan Rivers - I used to like your humor, but you are on television way too much these days, and like Larry King, your expiration date was up long ago.

16. Mitch McConnell - You may not be on TV that much, but every time you are, you are a certified horse's ass.

15. John Boehner - You are just as big a jerk as McConnell; however, your orange pallor and boo-hooing add an element of entertainment.

14. Greta van Susteren - Get off my TV and take the Church of Scientology with you.

13. Laura Ingraham - You are a bad enough hate monger on AM radio. Do you have to disgrace television, too?

12. Dana Loesch - Who taught you manners, Adolf Hitler?

11. Michelle Malkin - Are you sure you are not a white KKK Southern Baptist in disguise?

10. Grover Norquist - You are doing so much political damage to America that no further explanation is necessary!

9. Wolfe Blitzer - Retire already, you old jackass Republican shill!

8. Barbara Walters - You used to be an intelligent interviewer. Now you are just a hackweasel for Sarah Palin and her family of grifters.

7. Stephanie Courtney (The Progressive Insurance lady) - You may be a talented comedian, but get off every channel of my TV! I am so sick of your stupid face, I could barf!

6. Jerry Stiller - Ditto Stephanie Courtney above!!!

5. Nancy Grace - Isn't there a pretty little white girl missing somewhere? Maybe you could find her sooner if you joined the search and got your snarling mug off the TV!

4. Herman Cain - Only Fox News would have the unmitigated gall to still give a has-been clown like you a microphone.

3. Sean Hannity - You are probably the biggest right-wing blowhard of them all.

2. Bristol Palin - Has there ever been a more worthless, talentless celebrity undeserving of fame in all of American history?

1. Sarah Palin, -  Of course you are #1. Your first screech of code words and sneering expressions back in 2008 was enough for anyone with a brain.

Karma Denial

A story on one of my local news channels a few days ago reminded me of an issue I consider quite relevant as an example of precisely why America is stuck in a morass of indecisive and illogical behavior patterns. The car pictured here is the Fisker Karma, a long, heavy, expensive model built in Finland and first sold in the U.S. last November. The Karma is powered by a pair of 161-hp electric motors that can be supplemented by a 260-hp, turbocharged, 2-liter, gasoline engine. The Karma sits on a 124-inch wheelbase, weighs 5300 pounds, and costs $102,000 for the base model or $116,000 for the deluxe version. The EPA rates the total range available at 230 miles if the battery system is fully charged and the gas tank is full. Due to the car's small interior volume, the EPA rates it as a subcompact. If you want more information on the Karma, Wikipedia describes many facets of the car's development history, specifications, and technical capabilities such as range and miles-per-gallon under various conditions and power modes.

The news story concerned the fact that the Delaware facility that was supposed to produce the Fisker Atlantic, a slightly smaller, cheaper, plug-in electric sedan, is apparently at a stalemate. VP Joe Biden had facilitated a plan that would offer a heavy influx of cash from a government loan to bring the project to Wilmington. Now there seems little hope that the plant will be finished and the car produced there. The Atlantic was slated to begin production next year, but at this point the car's future is open to interpretation.

I find this whole idea not only ludicrous, but a glaring symbol of Americans' deep denial of reality! America doesn't need another silly toy for the one-percenters. It needs a hybrid car for the masses, built in the U.S. and providing jobs with decent wages to Americans! Like the ridiculous Chevrolet Volt, the Fisker models are nothing more than a sham to disguise the fact that Americans have totally lost their minds in a sea of denial! America does not need another overpriced car, no matter how it is powered. America needs its own new Volkswagen Beetle. We need another Mustang, Eurosport, Caravan, Taurus, or whatever. We need a car that requires a lot of expensive pre-production tooling for a line that utilizes established mechanical components, but with a new concept in marketing. We need a new model line of hybrids that will sell hundreds of thousands of units. We need hybrid vehicles the middle class can afford and wants to buy.

President Carter changed our political nation for the worse when he made his legendary "tighten our belts" speech. It was not his fault at all. He absolutely did the brave and right thing. What hurt us was that this speech provided the launching pad for the Reagan Revolution of "greed is good" that has brought our once great nation to its financial knees. Our current Commander in Chief is too paranoid for his own political future to tell us the truth we so desperately need to hear.

Rover invented the SUV is England, but the first U.S. model was the Jeep Wagoneer launched in the 1963 model year. Back in the '60's, International Harvester (yes, Maybelle, the tractor company) was building its Scout. Ford introduced its small Jeep (as in CJ) competitor in 1966. The original Bronco was a more modern and comfortable type of off-road recreational vehicle, with a sleek body offering many options and colors. Chevrolet has been producing its Suburban model for decades. All of these vehicles were purchased by buyers with a specific off-road activity in mind, whether it was slinging mud through the boondocks from the exposed tires of a CJ or Scout, or pulling a boat or camper behind a large Suburban loaded with passengers and cargo.

This all changed when Ford introduced its Explorer in 1990. The Explorer unleashed a monster in America that has been almost as devastating to our national sanity as The War on Drugs. The modern SUV Revolution is nothing less than the automotive symbol of Reagan's greed is good concept. The Explorer was specifically designed to appeal to women, not to drive to the boonies, but to city jobs via long daily commutes on the freeway. The higher seating position allowed women to better see above the many overly aggressive pickup truck drivers who constantly cut in front of them. When these arrogant buttheads are not blocking the ladies' view, they are tailgating. Ask many women what they wanted to drive on their everyday suburban trek and they would say a tank! The new type of SUV was designed to give these ladies all the amenities of a comfortable car enclosed in a big, heavy truck-like package with a high level of outward visibility in traffic. The problem is that these tanks get less mileage than a comparable conventional sedan. Yes, of course with advances in technology they get considerably better mileage than the Wagoneers and Suburbans of old. The problem is that those SUV's were used mostly for their intended recreational purposes, and that meant by a very small percentage of the overall car buying public. The modern monsters of our freeways are mostly carrying no passengers and towing no boats. The accessory most often observed being used inside the cabin is a cell phone! Like The War on Drugs, a little of it is not so bad, but a massive explosion of it is very harmful to the future of our culture.

We do not actually need hybrid or electric cars to lessen our fuel consumption. The same advances that have allowed the Explorer to get much better mileage than you might expect have also been applied to small sedans. Most of the virtual swarm of econoboxes manufactured today get twice the mileage of their ancestors of only thirty years ago. These modern marvels of economy produce far higher levels of performance, comfort, style, and overall driving quality than their ancestors did. The problem is simply that far too few Americans are choosing to drive these fuel-efficient vehicles.

What can we as a culture do to improve our plight? The first step is ridiculously simple. We can demand that our political and media leaders tell us the truth. We can face the obvious fact that population is our problem. The population is causing the fuel supplies to dwindle faster than necessary. The population is bringing global warming sooner than expected. Other nations of the world have a different set of problems caused by overpopulation, but that is no excuse for us not to be the leader in addressing the problem in our own backyard. The second problem is The War on Drugs. What a despicably wasteful use of resources and destruction of an otherwise productive citizenry! This nonsense needed to stop long before the Ford Explorer was even launched to clog our freeways. The third problem is The SUV Revolution and the despicable little man who spawned it, Ronald Reagan. All President Obama has to do is tell us the truth, to tighten our belts.

Tiny Furniture

...And now for something completely different: the preview of Lena Dunham's second movie, Tiny Furniture, that premiered here in Austin at SXSW in 2010. (Obviously I am a fan of Lena's new series, Girls. After writing The Last Horizon, how could I not be?)

See Also: A Short Interview with Lena Dunham about Creative Nonfiction, her first feature-length film premiering at SXSW 2009.
Watch the Creative Nonfiction trailer on YouTube. 

Read an in-depth interview with Lena Dunham from June 2009.